The invention relates to ink jet printers and, more particularly, to an ink jet printer having a mechanism forwarding a recording medium to a recording position.
Printers of a type generally called "ink jet printers" are designed to record data either by deforming a single or a plurality of piezoelectric elements selected by a recording signal or by heating a single or a plurality of electric resistors selected by a recording signal to thereby produce bubbles in the region or regions of ink, and then by pressuring the ink in the region or regions to thereby jet the ink onto a recording sheet in the form of droplets. For this reason, a printer of this type requires a recording sheet be located as close to a recording head as possible to allow jetted ink droplets to reach the recording sheet correctly and efficiently. In addition, the printer requires that the recording sheet be forwarded out of touch of the recording head so that the recording sheet is free from ink stains.
Printers proposed in Japanese Patent Unexamined Publications Nos. 239073/1988 and 139286/1989 are designed to cause a recording sheet that has been sent by a sheet feed roller to be bent reversely so that the sheet can be fitted with the platen at a position immediately before the recording head. These printers are excellent in making the recording sheet out of contact with the recording head and minimizing the gap between the recording sheet and the recording head. However, these printers also address gap control problems, such as having to maintain a constant gap between the head and the platen through a carriage guide and adjusting a gap between the recording sheet and the head by pressing the platen down.